I did not make it to the Thursday event, but there were about 25 kiters in attendance and the Caution crew trounced most everyone in most of the races, which I'd attribute to skill.

"Racing sounds like a great objective way to see what kites really work well out on the water instead of just the useless hype on these forums."

I don't agree with that personally. All kites are good now, it's really a matter of seeing what kiters work well out on the water. Lots of people have questions about gear and want feedback and folks try to reply with informative answers, so I'm not sure there's much useless hype around here, but yes, I'd agree that some forums (the big one, anyway) tend to have quite a bit of that.